Hire a Coach? Why Would I Hire a Coach?

For some people, it’s still weird to consider hiring a coach. You know what? Hire a coach anyway.

There are people in many (most? all?) of our lives who disapprove of the idea of hiring a coach. Mom. BFF. Spouse. One’s own, VERY LOUD, inner skeptic.

This is a hard topic for me to address. I myself spent many years resisting coaching; specifically, resisting the notion of becoming a coach—despite the fact that since at least 2005, I’ve had trusted advisors tell me I should consider it. It felt so outlandish. Useless. A bit of a joke, even.

How misguided. In retrospect. Of course. Oh, “Retrospect,” how much you suck.

So what changed my mind? Good question. I dunno, maybe a total meltdown. Maybe a moment where I was like, you know what? What the hell. I’ve tried everything else and it’s all been wrong. I’ve chased after what I “should” do over and over and over and OVER again. And what did that get me? I’ll tell you what that got me (over 20 years): 8 jobs, 6 quits, 3 long periods of unemployment, 2 firings, and not even one single goddamn partridge, in a stupid pear tree or otherwise.

You know that Kris Kristofferson (not Janis Joplin, I’m sorry to let you know, though I love her and she certainly popularized it) lyric, “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose”? It’s kind of like that: actually getting the guts to pursue your true calling’s just another word for nothing left to lose.

So, pay attention to the growing evidence from bodies as august as “Workplace Psychology” and Harvard Business Review. If you’re moved to consider executive, leadership, career, or life coaching: run, don’t walk, to your nearest coaching kiosk and get yourself locked in. You won’t regret it.